Canada June housing starts unexpectedly jump on Ontario strength

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian housing starts rose much more than expected in June from May on booming apartment construction in Ontario as well as a strong performance from British Columbia, data from the national housing agency showed on Monday.

The report from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp showed the seasonally adjusted annualized rate of housing starts rose to 218,333 in June from a revised 186,709 in May. Economists had forecast 190,000 starts in June.

Senior officials in the Liberal government have recently expressed concern about high prices in Toronto and the British Columbia city of Vancouver, Canada’s hottest markets, and say they will study whether further tightening of mortgage rules is needed.